MEET Martin Ritchley for the first time and you might find it difficult to imagine him mixing it in the cut-and-thrust world of modern finance....

MARTIN Ritchley, chief executive of Coventry Building Society, is the new chairman of the Building Societies Association. He will be the national figurehead for an industry that dominates the lives of millions of homeowners. Coventry Evening Telegraph Business Editor Colin Lewis asked him how he will handle one of the hottest jobs in the UK.

MEET Martin Ritchley for the first time and you might find it difficult to imagine him mixing it in the cut-and-thrust world of modern finance.

He is nothing like the stereotypes: the aggressive City buccaneer or, at the other extreme, the grey man in the grey suit.

He greets with a beaming smile and projects an open, approachable demeanour.

He would make the perfect partner for a round of golf but, as his deputy at the Coventry, John Thomson, added: "Don't expect to win. He is extremely competitive and extremely passionate.

"But you always know where you are with him and his office door is always open to his staff."

Behind the affability is a steely mind driven by a logic grounded in a passionate belief in the building society ethos.

Mention the word carpetbagger and you will quickly find out just how passionate he can be.

"It seems to me entirely wrong that people can join an organisation just for the purposes of bringing it down," was his rapid reaction.

Previous chairmen of the Building Societies Association have fought to get new laws to repel the carpetbagger infiltrators hoping to pick up lucrative windfalls by forcing building societies to convert into banks.

But the legislation route had proved "pretty fruitless". Instead, the societies have devised their own deterrent, the "charitable assignment scheme" which compels the new saver to sign away their rights to any windfall for the first five years.

"It seems right that there should be some sort of probationary period, during which you need to be a member, before you can figure in one of these conversion windfalls."

But he believes the debate has now moved on, and his key role will be to get rid of the "fuddy duddy" image that still clings to many of the 67 UK building societies and show how much they can really do for people.

"We have to demonstrate that because we are a building society we don't have to pay dividends to outside shareholders and that gives you 30 to 40 per cent of your profits to use for your customers; this results in a better ongoing deal than they can get from the banks."

He believes this is the "virtuous circle" that only a building society can offer.

It's a policy which sees them regularly topping the "best buy" mortgage and savings tables, and outperforming the banks in mortgage lending and savings offers.

He uses the example of his own society to support his argument. "That is what we have set out to achieve at the Coventry - to operate on a much narrower interest margin - the difference between our mortgage interest rate and our savers' interest rate."

Since he joined the-then Coventry Economic in 1970, assets have risen from #70 million to #6.4 billion; and two out of every three people living in Coventry are either savers or borrowers.

At the same time, societies continue to cut costs. Management expenses at the Coventry, for instance, came down last year from 0.73p per pound of average assets to 0.70p.

"What I will be doing as chairman of the BSA will be to articulate as forcefully as possible the fact that building societies are good for customers, good for savers, and good for borrowers.

"What would the banks' margins be without the competition from the building societies? The answer is: considerably wider, since they have to satisfy outside shareholders through higher dividends and improving share prices."

As BSA chairman he will also deal with the Financial Services Association, which oversees the finance industry.

"My role will be to make sure the regulators get a proper balance between regulations and consumer protection, so as not to stifle competition and to allow us to operate effectively."